Last year, we didn't get to do anything because of the Covid pandemic. All of our vacations, concerts, geocaching events, fairs, rodeos, parties, etc., were all canceled or postponed. That summer was pretty boring especially the first part of the summer when our outdoor hikes, parks, lakes, rivers, playgrounds, walking trails were all closed. In hindsight, it was a mistake because we are still doing this even a year and a half later. This year some of the stuff mentioned were still going to happen that included Tenino Pioneer Days. I haven't been to Tenino days in a few years so I thought it might be fun to go to the parade and watch Ben with their fire department demonstration.
Ben got up around 8ish, got ready and headed into Tenino for Oregon Trail Days, he and his fire department were going to be in the parade and do a demonstration in the park.
I got up shortly after and got ready. I called Mom and Dad to see what they were doing and they said they were getting ready to go to the parade. I told them if they wait a few minutes I can drive out there and we can take one car into Tenino. They said okay.
I grabbed all of my stuff and headed out there. We made sure to bring our chairs. We got into Tenino and tried finding parking. We ended up on the north side of town. We grabbed our chairs and walked the block to the main road. As we walked we ran into Bob, Bev and Danny. We found a place on the south side of the main road near the Collision Center.
The parade was longer than I thought but Yelm didn't have their parade this year so some of them were in the Tenino parade. There were probably about 50 entries all together. We also go more candy than expected as well.
After the parade, we went to put our chairs back (Ben found us in the crowd and told me he was getting ready to go to the park) and walked to the fire station to use the restroom. I texted Ben saying we were on our way and hoped that he was still at the station so he could escort us into the building. On our way to the station, I saw Kathy, a lady I used to work with in the mail room. She said hi and then met up with her family and friends in the park. When we got to the department, I called Ben to let him know we were there so he could escort us. We went through the bay and into the building to use the restroom. Ben said they had to go to the park now to set up their demonstration.
We walked to the park, after using the restroom, and saw Will, Shari's dad, was getting the candy cannon ready. Mom and I stayed to watch while Dad went wandering around. After the candy cannon, Mom and I did some wandering around the park.
We saw the gems and mineral area, the "food court" and the demonstration areas. You could learn how to make a candle or mine for coal. We looped back around and settled next to the extrication demonstration the fire department was going to do for the public at 1:00.
They had it roped off to keep the public safe, had tarps laid down, safety equipment set up, etc. It was a black car that the cops seized and it was full of bullet holes and full of garbage. They started off with a introduction with the mega phone of what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. I knew I could only stay until about 1:30-1:40ish. They popped the car tires, stuck wedges underneath it and the tires so it didn't roll and started getting rid of the windshield and back window. They worked on cutting the doors away from the car, then went through the trunk, cut the air bags and eventually the top of the car to rescue an "invisible" person stuck in the car.
It approached 1:30 and we had to go if I was going to take my parents back into Rainier and make it to my house to get the food ready for Nicole and Del's party in Tumwater.
We walked back to the Escape and it took forever to turn left onto Hwy 507 to go towards Rainier. It was ridiculous. Then the line of cars drove slow all the way to Military Road. I was glad to get away from them once they turned off the road. I dropped Mom and Dad off and went back into Lacey. I got all the fruit rinsed off, the apples cut, the strawberries cut, the grapes neatly trimmed, I mixed up the fruit dip which consisted of vanilla Greek yogurt and honey and placed everything in easy to go containers. I brought Grammie's glass food tray to put them on. I brought some leftover crackers and a bag of chips. I made sure to bring the beer and cider we were going to taste.
I got everything into the Escape and headed into Tenino. Ben was going to meet me there when he was done with the demonstration. I get to their house, this was the first time I've been over here since I helped them move last August. I was the first person there and I was about 10 minutes late. Haha. She gave me the tour of what their place looks like with stuff put away. I brought my cooler in and started taking stuff out and setting it on the platter so when people got here it was ready to snack on.
I had no idea who was all coming. It was mostly Nicole's family and me, Ben, Lindsay and Justin. I haven't seen her brother in a while and just met his girlfriend. Barb and her husband Darren were also there. I had forgotten that Nicole's brother Garrett and Celeste used to date so that's why Celeste wasn't invited. Lindsay and Justin came a little bit later and we could definitely tell Lindsay was having a baby. She kinda told us over the party post on Facebook. We went downstairs and sat in the lawn chairs in the back yard. We opened up a variety of beers and ciders to taste.
We played a round of croquet and it was the most challenging game of croquet I ever played. Their back yard isn't the greatest so there were lots of lumps, divots and the hill impossible to avoid. I think everyone's ball went down the hill. Nicole played half the game and then went to go make burgers and hotdogs on the grill. The game took a little while but we all eventually prevailed! I think I got 4th place after leading the pack at one point but then I hit that blasted hill. Nicole said the food was done and so we all went upstairs to grab a plate of food.
Ben finally arrived in his motorcycle, grabbed some food and sat with us in the yard. He asked me if Lindsay was pregnant and I said yes she is. As a group we talked about that for a bit. We asked Lindsay some questions about names, when it was due, what they thought it was, etc. We continued tasting various beers and ciders and then we played Heads Up for a while. It did start to get dark so we brought the party into the house and continued for about another hour or so. We helped Nicole pack up stuff, thanked her for inviting us over and had the hope that we would have another game night or paint night soon.
We all headed home but I had to check on my friend's dogs before I went home. Ben zipped down the road on his motorcycle. We hung out for a bit putting stuff away and then got ready for bed. Our new fridge was coming the next day and we were heading to Ben's Mom's house for a BBQ on her new DECK!
Next Adventure: Hiking the Mima Falls Trail
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